By Glenora Reynolds
news@joplinglobe.com
EL DORADO SPRINGS, Mo. — Teens who are into texting might have trouble recognizing the meaning of “DWYSYWDWYSYWDI‚” but not the students of El Dorado Springs High School marketing educator and DECA advisor Vickie Hillsman.
“Do What You Say You Will Do When You Say You Will Do It‚” is Hillsman’s marketing program motto.
It has apparently, over the past 25 years, left its mark on her students since many have graduated from college with marketing and management majors and several have become entrepreneurs.
Six students have given back to their community by becoming teachers in the El Dorado Springs school district.
“I first saw this motto on the desk of Dwight Arner, a teacher at Carthage,” said Hillsman, who is the former Vicki Sneed, a 1975 Carthage Senior High School graduate.
“My marketing teacher was Dale O’Neil. He and my mom are the reason I became a teacher,” she said. Hillsman’s parents are Ed and Ruth Sneed, of Carthage. Her mother was a longtime teacher in the Carthage R-9 school system.
Hillsman has been named the 2008 Association for Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year for Region 3. Hillsman was one of six teachers in the United States to be selected. The award will be presented in December at the national convention in Charlotte, N.C. At that time Hillsman and five other regional winners will be interviewed and considered for the award of top ACTE teacher in the nation.
Among the many projects supervised by Hillsman is one known as The Doghouse. The enterprise began by selling cookies and milk and has become a full-scale store, housed in a classroom. Students still sell milk and cookies but have added fruit drinks and school apparel. The venture was initiated by Hillsman’s Entrepreneur and Small Business students.
“There are several stores like this in Missouri,” Hillsman said, “but ours is special because it involved other classes.”
A $400,000 grant for community revitalization for El Dorado Springs was also engineered by her students, and her DECA students have qualified for national and international competitions.
Last fall, Hillsman was honored by the El Dorado Springs Chamber of Commerce as Citizen of the Year.
Local News
El Dorado Springs teacher honored with national award
- Local News
-
-
Couple 'scoop out' ice cream business from the past
When 3-year-old Brynlee Rabel tried coconut ice cream for the first time Tuesday, it was love at first taste. “She got the vanilla, but when she tasted my coconut ice cream she had to have it,” said Kayleigh Daugherty, a Joplin resident who wanted Brynlee to share the same experience she had as a little girl when she visited Anderson’s Ice Cream.
-
Missouri National Guard releases records involving soldiers who looted from Wal-Mart
The Missouri National Guard has released records confirming that four soldiers were disciplined for taking merchandise from the ruins of a Wal-Mart store in Joplin one day after the tornado that devastated the city a year ago.
-
Joplin school board awards contract to complete demolition of JHS
The Joplin Board of Education on Tuesday night accepted a bid for finishing tornado-related demolition at the high school.
-
Auditor cites, commission covers potential shortfall in Jasper County sheriff’s budget
The Jasper County Commission on Tuesday approved the transfer of $23,000 onto the Law Enforcement Sales Tax fund available to the sheriff’s office to cover a potential budget shortfall.
-
Joplin METS director requests space for additional ambulance
If all goes like METS Director Jason Smith hopes, this time next year the service will have two ambulances in Webb City, housed in their own station. At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, Smith requested that the council allow the Joplin-based Metro Emergency Transport System to rent or lease space at the former public works building, 110 E. Church St.
-
Mike Pound: Food competitions combine to make culinary heaven
It’s such a great idea, you wonder why someone didn’t think of it before. In fact, it’s such a good idea that it’s possible it came about by accident.
-
Mo. court strikes down part of 2008 harassment law
The Missouri Supreme Court has struck down part of a state harassment law enacted after the suicide of a St. Charles County teenager who was teased over the Internet.
-
Cattle rustlers strike again in SW Mo. county
The plague of cattle rustling goes on in southwest Missouri’s Greene County.
Sheriff Jim Arnott says the latest episode occurred sometime Sunday in Walnut Grove. -
Bids sought for Cherokee County water treatment plant
After many delays, construction bids are being sought for a water treatement plant and water tank for the Spring River Public Wholesale Water District No. 19.
-
Dog helps some get through the court process
Sophie, a mutt of a dog with draping ears and dotted brows, is helping people in St. Louis County court tell stories of crime to judges, investigators and attorneys.
- More Local News Headlines
-
